Lyric Subway Art

So, we've all seen the subway art. Most of us have some in our homes right now. And with good reason, I mean, it's really cool and retro and it's so versatile! You can personalize it any way you want! And that's what I've done:

What we've got here are some lyrics from the old 70's hippie peace & love song "Get Together" by the Youngbloods. Also, a key. My plan was to make it look very old, very distressed. I wanted to give the impression of an old shop shingle. Did I succeed? I rarely do. But I'm keeping it anyway. After the jump, the tutorial.



I began with a bit of wood. It's kinda big. I DO have a mantel to fill after all. I sanded the sides, front and back and whitewashed it. I wanted the woodgrain to show through a bit.

Then, I printed out the lyrics, using specific spacing and a different font for each line. I printed them out in a landscape orientation (since this best fit my wood measurements) and taped it on with masking tape.

Oh yeah, I put carbon tracing paper under the lyrics so I could trace the words on with a ballpoint pen. That's probably an important step.

 Then I used a paint marker to fill in the lettering. I realized belatedly that I had a big empty space at the bottom of the wood, so I printed out a picture of a skeleton key and traced that on there too.

 I don't know why it looks yellow in this picture. Anyway, THEN I decided the black paint was too dark and precise and vivid. So I sanded the lettering to age it. A nice side-effect of tracing with a ballpoint pen was that it made a groove in the wood that held the paint even after sanding. It emphasizes the outline of the letters and I think it's cool.

 So all I had left to do was varnish it with some Minwax Woodsheen and call it a day!

                                           
I'm pretty happy with the result! And I hope everyone had a really wonderful Father's Day. I think sometimes dads are a little overlooked, so I hope you made the special dad in your life feel special.